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August 17 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
8 Plays22 hours ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
In today's reading we will read the Book of John Chapter 3. Today we will read about Nicodemus coming to see Jesus at night and being taught a lot! Jesus told him that people need to be born again, by the Spirit, and explained that God loved the world so much that He sent His only son into the world, that whoever believes in Him will have life forever. Jesus explained that He was not sent by God to condemn (blame) the world. People who believe in Him will not be blamed. This means that God forgives the sins of those who believe in Jesus. But people need to choose the way of light. Jesus is the light. He is the Way. And He is the Life. He is the truth.
We will also read about followers of John the Baptist complaining that other followers were leaving to follow Jesus and read John's response that he is not the Promised One. His job was to prepare the way for the Promised One and now that He had arrived John must become less and less important while Jesus becomes more and more important.
In our daily application we will be sure to understand that we must ALL make our own decision to follow Jesus. No one can make that decision for us. We must choose to be in the light, believe that Jesus is God's Son, and that He has saved us from our sins so that we are not blamed (condemned), and can be born again of the Spirit. As we grow, we need to remember that since we are a new person, we need to choose to obey Jesus and be less and less of that old person of the flesh and more and more of the new person, born of the Spirit. We need to become less important while Jesus becomes more important.
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
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Transcript
Introduction and Daily Bible Reading
00:00:03
Speaker
Hi everybody, today is August 17th and this is Robin and I'm with In the Family Way Coaching and we are here together for our daily Bible reading as we go through the day by day kids Bible.
00:00:18
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This has been written by Karen Henley.
00:00:23
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If you are following along on that commitment calendar, get that out. Get your sticker ready. Get your pen, whatever you're using to mark it off, because you're about to hear the Bible today.
00:00:38
Speaker
As always, I want to thank you for joining me as we go through the new covenant. We are having an awesome time and today we are going to get to read that ah John 3.16.
00:00:53
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Today's reading comes to us from John chapter 3. And this is a meaty chapter. Are you hungry? Are you ready for a lot of God's word today?
00:01:05
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Well, let's get started because we have a lot to cover today.
Nicodemus Visits Jesus - Born Again Discussion
00:01:12
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Our first section is entitled, A Night Visit.
00:01:19
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There was once a Jew named Nicodemus, and he was one of the leaders. He was a Pharisee. And one night, he came to see Jesus. "'We know that you are a teacher from God,' he said. "'Nobody can do the wonders you do unless God is with him.'" "'Here's the truth,' said Jesus. "'Nobody can even see God's kingdom without being born again.'" "'Born again?'
00:01:51
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asked Nicodemus. "'How can a person be born again when he is already old? "'I'm sure he can't go back inside his mother.'"
00:02:01
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Here is how you get into God's kingdom, said Jesus. You must be born of water and God's spirit.
00:02:13
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A body is born from a body. A spirit is born from God's spirit. Don't be surprised, but you have to be born again.
00:02:26
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The wind blows where it wants to, said Jesus. You can hear the sound of the wind, but you can't see where it's coming from. You can't see where it's going. It's the same with but people born of the Spirit.
00:02:43
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How can that be true? asked Nicodemus. You are a teacher of God's people, said Jesus. Don't you understand? The truth is we talk about things we know about, and we tell what we've seen.
00:03:00
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but you people don't believe us. I told you about things of the earth, said Jesus. You don't believe me. So will you believe if I tell you about heaven?
00:03:13
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Nobody has gone into heaven, but the one who came from heaven. That is what I did.
00:03:21
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Then Jesus told about the time when Moses put a metal snake up on a pole. It was when God's people were in the desert, and people who had snake bites could look at it, and then they would live.
00:03:35
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Jesus said, The Son of Man has to be lifted up too. Then everyone who believes in him will live forever.
00:03:46
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God loved the world very much, says Jesus. He loved it so much that he gave his only Son. And people who believe in him will not die. They will live forever.
Light vs Darkness
00:04:03
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God did not send his son to blame the world, said Jesus. He sent his son to save the world. People who believe in him will not be blamed.
00:04:17
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But people who do not believe are blamed already. And that's because they do not believe in God's only son.
00:04:27
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Here's what people have to choose, said Jesus. They have to choose between light and dark. Light is in the world, but people love the dark instead.
00:04:43
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That's because what they do is wrong. So they hate light, and they won't come into the light. They are afraid that their sin will show up clearly. But people who live in truth...
00:04:57
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come into the light. They want to show that they live with God's help.
John the Baptist's Perspective on Jesus
00:05:07
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Jesus and his friends went into the country and Jesus spent time with his friends there. Jesus also baptized people.
00:05:17
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John was still dipping people in water too and he was at a place where there was lots of water and people kept coming to be baptized. John's followers went to John.
00:05:29
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Remember the man you told us about? He is the man who was at the Jordan River, and he is dipping people in water too, and now everybody is going to him.
00:05:41
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A person has only what God gives him, said John. I told you, i am not the promised one. I was sent to make things ready for him.
00:05:53
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It's like two people who will get married. The bride will marry the groom, and the groom's best friend waits for him, and he is happy to hear the groom coming.
00:06:05
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That is the kind of joy that I feel, said John. Jesus has to become more and more important, and have to become less and less important.
00:06:21
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Jesus is from above, said John, so he is above everything. I and from the earth, so I talk like a person from the earth.
00:06:32
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Jesus talks about things he has seen and heard, but nobody believes him. People who believe Jesus show that they know God tells the truth.
00:06:46
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The one God sent speaks God's words. And there is no end to God's spirit in him. The father loves the son, said John.
00:06:59
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He gave everything to him. People who believe in him will live for forever. But people who do not obey God's son won't have the life that lasts forever.
Jesus Returns to Galilee
00:07:13
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They live in God's anger.
00:07:17
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Now, some people said john was getting more followers and said Jesus was getting more followers than John. And the Jewish teachers heard about it. And they heard that Jesus was dipping water in two dipping people in water too.
00:07:31
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But it was really Jesus' followers who were baptizing people. And when Jesus heard all this, he went back to Galilee.
00:07:41
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And that is the end of our reading today.
00:07:47
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Wow, there is a lot to unpack in today's reading before we can get to our daily application.
Reflections and Prophecies
00:07:54
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Because it's very important to me that we have understanding as to what we are reading about.
00:08:00
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So we are going to be looking at the book of Ezekiel. We're going to go back to when Nicodemus the Pharisee came to talk to Jesus.
00:08:12
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Nicodemus believed in Jesus.
00:08:16
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So Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being born again and how he had to be born of the spirit. We are born of water, Jesus says, and then we must be born of the spirit.
00:08:33
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So here Jesus is talking about the fulfillment of Ezekiel. Can you believe that? Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 24 to 27.
00:08:47
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to twenty seven
00:08:51
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God ah spoke to Ezekiel and he said, For I will take you from the nations and gather you out of all your countries and bring you back to your own land.
00:09:05
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Then i will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean from all your uncleanness and from your idols. Moreover, i will give you a new heart.
00:09:16
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I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you.
00:09:31
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Then i will cause you to walk in my laws so you will keep my rulings and do them.
00:09:44
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So Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he has to be born of the Spirit, that that is what it means to be born again. And when Nicodemus was confused, Jesus said, you are a teacher and you don't understand?
00:09:59
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So it was Jesus expected that since he was a teacher, he should be familiar with the Messianic prophecies and to understand. But he did not have understanding, did he?
00:10:12
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And it can be a very complicated subject to understand, being born of the Spirit. So let's go back to John chapter 3.
00:10:29
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now when Jesus was telling Nicodemus, he says, Here is how you get into God's kingdom, said Jesus.
00:10:40
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You must be born of water and God's spirit. A body is born from a body and a spirit is born from God's spirit. So don't be surprised, but you have to be born again.
00:10:56
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Then Jesus told about the time when Moses put a metal snake up on a pole and it was when God's people were in the desert. So people who had snake bites could look at it and then they would live.
00:11:09
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Jesus said, the son of man has to be lifted up too. And then everyone who believes in him will live forever. So let's pay attention to the words that we're reading.
00:11:20
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The son of man has to be lifted up too. Then
00:11:27
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everyone who believes in him will live forever. So there is an order. People who believed in Jesus would need to wait for him to die.
00:11:40
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And remember, it was not until after Jesus died and he rose again that he was with the disciples later on. We haven't read that yet, but remember, we just celebrated a few months ago, um Passover and the 50 days where we counted up until we reached Shavuot.
00:12:03
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And remember, Jesus was the first fruits. He was the first fruits of those born, ah yeah of those brought to life from the dead. So Jesus rose again on the first fruits.
00:12:17
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And then 50 days later, the receiving of the Holy Spirit was given. So that is when the people would be officially the born of spirit, was when they received the spirit.
00:12:33
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Now for us, since God has already delivered the Holy Spirit, once we believe in Jesus, he has already done this. So for us in our time, anyone who believes will receive God's Holy Spirit.
00:12:48
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And that is being born again.
Personal Faith and Relationship with Jesus
00:12:52
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But when Jesus was walking with them before he had been crucified, he was explaining that this was the way things had to happen.
00:13:02
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And even his disciples did not understand it.
00:13:07
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And then Jesus goes on to explain that God loved the world very much, said Jesus. He loved it so much that he gave his only son,
00:13:21
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And people who believe in him will not die. They will live forever. And that is our good news.
00:13:30
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God did not send his son to blame the world, said Jesus. He sent his son to save the world. People who believe in him will not be blamed. But people who do not believe are blamed already.
00:13:46
Speaker
That's because they don't believe in God's only son.
00:13:52
Speaker
So here's what people have to choose. They have to choose between light and dark. Light is in the world, but people love the dark instead.
00:14:03
Speaker
That's because what they do is wrong and they hate the light, so they won't come into the light. They are afraid that their sins will show up clearly. But people who live in truth come into the light.
00:14:16
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They want to show that they live with God's help.
00:14:20
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So when we come into the light, we show that we want to live with God's help. And Jesus tells us to abide with him, to live with him, to be with him all the time.
00:14:36
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So wanted to make sure that we understood that because that's definitely a good part of our daily application is to understand that Jesus himself explained how he came to save the world.
00:14:55
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What the heck is that? Sorry, I have a bug on my glasses. I'm going to pause that.
00:15:05
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That was the ugliest fly I have ever seen. landed right on my glasses. Did you see it before I stopped? It was right on the side there, and I couldn't quite see it, but I heard it buzz.
00:15:16
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And then I was like, what in the world is that? That was the buzziest, ugliest, reddest-eyed fly I've ever seen. ah And I wasn't able to get it, but it's not right here right now. so
00:15:30
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Well, I guess that'll be on my recording forever now.
00:15:35
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All right. So going back to our word here, let's go into our next section where we're talking about John. i This is one of my favorite ah teachings and verses from John, is John the Baptist here telling us that when his followers started to complain that people were leaving as his followers and were going to follow Jesus, ah John explained that he had to become less and less, and Jesus needed to become more and more.
00:16:16
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Once again, we see that John always was pointing people to Jesus. And it's very important that in everything that we do, that we point people to Jesus as well.
00:16:28
Speaker
And not only that, but that we become less and less in our own life. And Jesus becomes more. We sort of lose ourselves in a sense, but we don't But we gain a different self because we are born again. We are trading one existence for another.
00:16:47
Speaker
Instead of living according to the flesh, we are to live according to the spirit. And i love this lesson. And John is giving us the example of that from the very beginning.
00:17:02
Speaker
And I love how he knew that he when he explained he says the father loves the son he gave everything to him people who believe in him will live forever but people who do not obey god's son won't have the life that lasts forever they live in god's anger so we've just finished the old covenant we know that people had to perform, had to bring sacrifices to God for atonement.
00:17:38
Speaker
Even when Mary was ah had given birth to Jesus, she had to bring their her offerings to God for her cleansing. and her And one of them was to be a sin offering.
00:17:50
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And ah there were there were a lot of rules. And we don't have these rules anymore. Because Jesus forgave our sins.
00:18:02
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And he did so because he loves us so much. And so when we exchange ah and believe and and exchange our fleshly life for a spiritual life, then we gain the life that lasts forever.
00:18:19
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And later on, we will see how Jesus says, whoever loves his life will lose it. But whoever hates his life will gain. We'll keep it. And he doesn't mean literally to living.
00:18:34
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He means to be exchanging the spiritual, ah the physical life for the spiritual life. When we become born again, born of the spirit, we are exchanging that.
00:18:48
Speaker
And I believe it's Paul later on will tell us that we are renewed by a transforming of our mind. And so we have to learn to think differently and to do things differently because we are not the same people.
00:19:05
Speaker
we are We have been born again. and and you might be raised in the church, but you have to come to your own relationship with Jesus.
00:19:18
Speaker
You have to follow him on your own choosing. So diamond and Jedi and forest and pearl, ah Some of you are already old enough to where you've made that decision, but like Diamond, you will have to make that decision if you have not done so already, that you will have to make the choice yourself to follow Jesus and do it because you choose to.
00:19:42
Speaker
And that's why everybody gets their own calendar because each day listening to the Bible is your own choice to have your own personal relationship with Jesus.
00:19:55
Speaker
We all have a choice. And so we can't live on the basis of our parents' beliefs anymore. That is what God told us is that from then on, everybody would be responsible for their own sins.
00:20:10
Speaker
The children would not have to pay for the sins of the father and the fathers would not have to pay for the sins of the children. And neither would the children receive an inherited salvation.
00:20:24
Speaker
type of thing, because now everybody would be responsible for their own relationship with God. And so everybody, you may be raised in the church and you may be taught what to do, but eventually you have to make your own decisions to do what is right and to accept Jesus as your personal savior.
00:20:46
Speaker
We all do. We can't ah live on the coattails of other people. We have to do it ourselves.
00:20:55
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And we have to decide to become less and less so that Jesus can become more and more important. And that's the right way to live. And that is our big daily application today.
Final Reflections and Call to Action
00:21:11
Speaker
I told you it would be meaty today, didn't I? We learned a lot today. There was so much. We learned about Jesus coming to to tell us that we needed to be born again. And we've learned about eternal life and also that we become less while Jesus becomes more.
00:21:33
Speaker
That is a lot today. Wow. Well, I know that I feel that God lit my light today. i i thought that was an amazing teaching.
00:21:44
Speaker
i was I loved especially too how um when the teacher came, Nicodemus, that when he spoke to Jesus, Jesus referred him to Ezekiel.
00:21:55
Speaker
He didn't say the verses from his, you know, he didn't quote Ezekiel specifically. Yeah. But he was explaining and he was explaining Ezekiel. So God had already told the people.
00:22:08
Speaker
He already told us when we read the old covenant what he was going to do. And now Jesus had explained to him what was going to, that it was happening now. The future is now.
00:22:22
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ah He could have easily said that.
00:22:26
Speaker
So if you feel that God has lit your light today, then as always, i just ask that you consider clicking that light button so that we can let other people know about John 3, 16 today so that everybody knows that they need to be born again.
00:22:41
Speaker
We want to share this message and spread the word about reading God's word so that other people will also have their lights lit by him. He came into the world to be a light.
00:22:53
Speaker
And now we are lights too, because he lives in us. Because God put his spirit in us. Wow, that's so amazing. and We are so blessed that our God loves us so much.
00:23:06
Speaker
So I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day, whatever day you get around to ah listening or watching this August 17th daily reading. And you know where you can find me tomorrow.
00:23:19
Speaker
I'll be here tomorrow for our next day's reading.